Banchory Academy is a secondary school serving Banchory, Scotland and surroundings, including the neighbouring communities of Raemoir, Crathes, Strachan, Drumoak, Durris, Inchmarlo and Glassel. It accommodates roughly 945 pupils.RectorThe Rector is Sheila Di Maio, assisted by Depute Rectors Sue Cameron, Graham Bett and Colin Nicoll.Academic performanceBanchory Academy ranks amongst the top state schools in Scotland, performing consistently well in SQA examinations. A consistently above average proportion of pupils remain at school for fifth and sixth year to take Intermediate, Higher and Advanced Higher courses. The HM Inspectors of Education report in 2006 judged school accommodation as being 'weak', noting that it was insufficient for the rising school roll. All other school quality indicators were rated 'good', 'very good' or 'excellent'.Banchory in the newsIn 2008 turf lawn was laid in the sixth year common room. In 2014, the school went through legal battle against a previous S6 pupil for remarks made on the social networking site, Twitter. It is believed that the comments made, revealed truths about SMT's (Senior Management Team) personal life. The pupil has since been removed from the school and the legal case was dropped. The identity of the pupil was not disclosed nor were the comments made on the site. No further action has been taken.Notable former pupilsMatt Prodger, JournalistAndrew Considine, Professional footballer, Aberdeen Football ClubPeter Pawlett, Professional footballer, Aberdeen Football Club, Scotland YouthAshly Rae, Hollywood actressPete Cashmore, new media expert, founder of MashableBen Kilner, Professional SnowboarderScott MacDonald, Professional Boxer: Under 21's featherweight categoryLewis Thomas Rowe, Achieved worldwide recongnition captaining local ping pong team, the Banchory Pings, to five PPA titles